


endings and beginnings.

by epistretes



Series: Aquaphilia [8]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Loki is grouchy, Sif is devious, Thor is the King, except with Sif, smutty smuts, when he is a kitten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 15:58:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3615789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epistretes/pseuds/epistretes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Odin passes his decree and life goes on.</p><p>(Final Installment of Aquaphilia)</p>
            </blockquote>





	endings and beginnings.

**Author's Note:**

> I was hoping to get this up on the 25th March as it would be exactly as year and I missed it by 3 minutes! Oh well, enjoy the final installment of 'Aquaphilia'.

Odin's decree had surprised no one after word had got out that he had visited his first grandson and been immediately smitten with the tiny babe. Loki was sentenced to a period of confinement to Asgard for a decade unless escorted by at least four veteran warriors and to be under the constant watch of Heimdall. His freedom was forfeit forever should he ever break the decree.

Loki turned to Sif as she nursed their tiny pale pink child when they were finally left alone.

"I think I finally understand what Odin said in the vault now," he broke the silence and looked at her. "It will take time and we will never be as we were, but perhaps we can live with each other."

"Come here," she pulled him in and let him stroke Ullr's head "Promise your son that you will not give the Allfather cause to lock you away ever again."

"I promise." He gave her a cheeky grin "It seems our son likes your breasts as much as I do."

"I always did say that you were insatiable."

"I think that was the other way around, Sif" he teased and had she not been nursing, she would have aimed a slap at him. 

"Yes well, whomever is the real insatiable one, that chance meeting in the bathroom has led to this. Has led to _him_. You can't let things eat at you any more. It wasn't fair to me but I forgave, in time. I won't forgive if you break his trust and his heart."

"I won't be the father to him that mine were to me. I swear it with Heimdall as my ever-present witness." Sif was satisfied by that as much as she could be with words over actions.

"Hopefully not _ever_ present," Sif retorted jokingly, knowing Heimdall was listening. "I can always take responsibility sometimes for some privacy."

Loki smirked and leaned in for a deep, searching kiss. Their first since conceiving Ullr and it sent tingles through her exhausted body. Had she had her wits about her, she would have been sure Heimdall had stopped watching but her mind was pleasantly blank even with her tired body. War had never been as painful as giving birth but having Loki back with her and Ullr in her arms healed so many of her hurts.

He pulled out of the kiss and removed his boots and belt lest the buckle scratch her and crawled up on the bed with her and their son. Sif cuddled carefully in to him and as he wrapped his arms around them, she gave in to her emotional and physical exhaustion and slept.

Waking as the sun set to her son's renewed cries for milk and his soiled towels, Sif blinked awake unaware that Thor and Odin had stopped by for a visit and taken in the slumbering and reunited little family before leaving quietly.

"Don't suppose you want to change his towels while I wake up properly?" She asked and Loki scowled at her before deciding it was better than incurring her wroth. '"No magic, either."

She chose not to hear the rude exclamation from her lover as she hauled herself gingerly from the bed and quickly washed her face and hands before returning to the bed and freeing her breasts to feed their newly cleaned son. 

"I think we might have to teach you how to tie a swaddling cloth properly," a wry comment reached them from the door.

"Natasha! Please do come in. Loki has promised to behave himself." He groaned in response, but Sif ignored him.

"Then I shall." Natasha agreed and came in, before rooting around in Sif's baby bag and locating the muggle camera they had packed. "Say 'cheese'!"

"Why would we say 'cheese'?" Loki queried but Natasha ignored him as Sif had and snapped anyway, carefully angling the shot to ensure Sif was not showing anything more than she would be comfortable with. 

"Proof that you can manage at least one good thing. Well, two. Your son and the love of Sif, anyway." Natasha told him. "I have not yet been able to forgive what you did to Barton, but this goes a long way to it."

"You seem calmer than I would have supposed."

"Sif is my friend and I figured out the parentage some time ago so I've had time to get used to the idea." She turned her gaze back to the baby, who was now being burped.

"How?"

"Sif and Tony clashed rather too often over you for it to escape my notice. I knew it was none of the Asgardians we knew other than you and had it been someone we did not know, she would not have been secretive." The girl was too perceptive for her own good, Sif thought privately, but smiled anyway at it.

"I should go back to New York and let everyone know that you are okay. I doubt your King will forget my presence much longer."

The Midgardian took a few more pictures and left with Fandral as her escort after promising to have JARVIS record the reactions of her friends when she told them the news.

Once they were left alone and Ullr was asleep, Sif turned to Loki seriously.

"I meant what I said. If you give me cause to, I will take you down. Don't make me have to explain to our son that his Mummy had to imprison or kill his Daddy." Steel was in her looks and her voice. "Can you really adhere to it? Can you really love a half-Jötunn child?"

"Yes, I can." Loki replied after looking over at their son. He was still a little red and squashed after the birth, but he was beautiful and while he showed no outward signs of his dual heritage, he might develop some as he grew. While his father and grandfather had given way to evil acts, his son was an innocent. Sif was certain Loki was understanding her as he took in their sleeping child. "I already do."

Sif nodded and settled her exhausted body down for a snatch of sleep as her child rested. Loki crawled in beside her and she drifted off with him stroking her hair and pressing gentle kisses to her neck. 

A week later, they sat in their new quarters in the palace on the balcony having an early breakfast. Sif had considered taking a home outside the citadel itself but Odin's newfound goodwill did not stretch that far. There had been some whispers about her and Loki but she would have been surprised had there not been. She had ignored them, she had better things to worry about and she had never allowed gossip to bother her like Loki always had.

Thor burst in, face full of seriousness as he let his eyes settle on his brother holding his nephew carefully and lovingly.

"The Allfather has told me he wishes to name me King with near immediate effect." He said, clearly afraid of the reaction.

"Good." Loki retorted, though he could not quite conceal a note of bitterness "Being King was rather boring."

"His hands are tied. He cannot name one under guard."

"As I am aware."

"Loki, I..."

"My son needs his bath." Loki cut him off and scooped up Ullr from his bassinet and closed the door behind him 

"He is doing better - just allow him time," Sif told him, correctly interpreting Thor's awkward silence as he stared at the closed door.

"Would that Father would put this off, but he claims he will never have the vigour he once had. He wants to travel for some time until I am settled as King so as to not undermine my rule."

"Sounds like a wise course." She agreed.

"I cannot lessen Loki's sentence. There are many who are angry the judgment was not harsher. My first command as King cannot be to undo the Allfather's last." His eyes crinkled in confusion as Sif laughed.

"You are not the first to have said such to me. Loki said the same when we petitioned him to end your banishment." She explained.

"Then perhaps it will be as it always was meant to be - with him by my side," he put forth hopefully.

"Eventually, it might. There is one more thing that being King can bring you." She looked up at him with a sly smile.

"What?"

"Jane Foster may once again visit Asgard - perhaps to stay. I should like my friends to be able to visit and meet my son. I grew fond of them during my stay on Midgard. I can see why she captured your heart." Thor's expression as he realised the truth of her words was a joy to behold. If Thor made the rules, mortals might walk the Realm Eternal - and Jane would have some friends here were she to stay.

“Sif, you have lightened my heart.” He kissed her exuberantly on the cheek and whisked out of the room, not noticing Loki glowering at him from the doorway, son asleep in hand.

“What exactly was _that_ all about?” He asked in a manner she assumed was supposed to be haughty but just came out whiny and jealous.

“I told him that being King would grant him the chance to bring Jane here again,” she told him succinctly as she folded some laundry quietly. She had gained a recent appreciation for domestic niceties, possibly a late blooming of a nesting instinct. She was not sure what brought it on but it was calming - which was very useful right now. “Loki, you are holding our _child_ , I stood up in front of the Realms and claimed you. Don’t you dare start being a jealous idiot about Thor again.”

He sat down and stared at their sleeping babe and refused to speak for a long moment.

“I’m sorry. I guess it will be a little harder to be okay with all of this. Not that long ago, I was in the dungeon about to be sentenced to banishment, eternity in jail or death. Now I have semi-freedom, I have you and I have Ullr.”

“So focus on that.”

“I don’t deserve it.”

“No, you don’t,” she admitted and he looked up at her. “You tried, repeatedly to throw everything away, but here you are and while you do not deserve it all, you have been given the chance to earn it.”

\---

Thor-King was crowned three months later and he presided over those gathered in Hliðskjálf. Odin passed on the mantle of the Allfather and Loki had to be prodded surreptitiously often to make him look anything other than irritated that fate had stuck stubbornly to her course.

Sometimes Sif thought that it was only her and their son that stopped him from spiralling back in to destructive madness. He had not left her side since Ullr's birth and she was determined that he never would.

The Ceremony was complete and Odin left the Realm Eternal, dressed as a simple wanderer after he took his leave of his grandson and a new era began in Yggdrasil's branches.

Loki listened sullenly as Thor's first decree was for greater co-operation between all nine realms and re-opened Asgard to mortals.

Sif sneaked away and gave Ullr in to the care of his rather doting uncle in the Observatory and returned to pull Loki away from the speechifying. She wrapped her hands over his eyes and drew him down numerous empty corridors. He grumbled the whole way about stupidity being the order of the day, until she released him and let him see where they were. It was their secret chamber complete with large bath tub.

"Maybe you aren't so stupid after all." He mused as he turned to kiss her. 

"I don't know about that. I'm involved with you, aren't I?" She quipped back, reaching in to kiss him. His kisses still did not fail to send tingles down her spine and it had only got better since the birth of their son and their final secrets being stripped from them both. 

Sif began gently removing the trappings of State from Loki’s shoulders, as she had once done in this room, removing Sif from Lady Sif; she removed Loki from Prince Loki, from Traitor Loki. As she revealed each new inch of skin, she kissed it, wanting him to let go as the two of them always had done in this room.

It seemed that her planning was working as he relaxed under her touch and soon, he followed suit, divesting her of her clothing in return and she drew him towards the bath with her, knowing the layout of the room here even better than the quarters they now shared as a family.

She had already drawn the bath and she stepped in to the water and held her arms out to him. He did not even hesitate for a split second to respond and was soon in the water, gathering her up and holding her tight. She hooked her leg around his hip and leaned back to allow him to kiss her neck, which he did, followed by a strong lick up the exposed line of her offered to him. He stirred against her and she could feel him perking up and pressing at her entrance, but she both denied access as he held himself back. Not yet.

“Do you remember our first time?” she asked him, voice rather more husky with desire than it had been earlier.

“I thought of little else while I was apart from you,” he admitted and she smiled.

“See? Insatiable.”

“Yet you are the one who brought me here~” he countered and kissed her searchingly again as he gently tipped her back and rolled his hips against her once, twice, thrice and on the third roll, she gasped in to the kiss as the head of his now full erection found what it had been seeking and slid wetly home.

Scratching her nails along his back, he moaned and pulled back before a decisive thrust in to her as the water lapped around their joined bodies. He still fit her perfectly, not too big and not too small. She loved the feeling of him sheathed tightly within her body and that had never changed since the first time he had nestled there and they had looked deeply in to each other’s eyes. That moment that had changed their lives forever and bound them together.

“I love you,” the words might never have existed they were so quiet, but she heard him and kissed him in response. She was always better with actions than words anyway and she knew that he understood her reciprocation.

Their bodies thrummed together with pleasure as their hips rolled, as their legs pushed and as their lips danced together, creating a delectable friction between them, until they could not take it anymore. With what would have been a wall-shaking cry had there not been layers of magic on this room, they came together and their bodies shook with the force of it.

\---

The happy day dawned, three months later, when Jane Foster was in attendance for the wedding of the realms and the Midgardians were brought through the Bifröst by Heimdall. Sif and Fandral greeted them and shared a smile at the gasps of wonder and expletives around them.

"No wonder your babydaddy wanted to be King of this," Tony whistled in awe and Sif wisely chose to ignore him. 

"That was incredible," Captain America added, looking less spangly than usual in a tailored suit.

"Fair Lady Darcy, Lady Jane awaits," Fandral told her and the group were led to the hovercrafts waiting for them. 

The ride to the citadel did not dampen any enthusiasm and they disembarked and were accompanied by the Einherjar to the Great Hall, but Sif drew Darcy away from the group and took her to where Jane's hair was being fussed over by handmaidens. With a smile at the annoyed-but-resigned look on the bride's face, Sif trilled.

"The prodding and poking will soon be done, then the fun can begin."

Leaving Jane to suffer the unwanted attentions to her hair and dress, Sif withdrew and went to her own rooms where Loki had just returned to change Ullr.

"Thor is so excited and distracted, I had to refuse to allow him to hold his nephew." He explained when she raised an eyebrow at his irritated posture.

“Well it is his wedding day, I think we can forgive being a little excited and distracted.”

“You would side with him,” Sif was pleased to note that it held much less bitterness than it would have any time in the last few years - perhaps, just perhaps, he was on the mend.

“Today? Yes and I believe you need to put your ceremonials on. I’ll finish up with Ullr.” After a bit more cajoling, Sif had herself, Loki and the baby all ready and waiting in place. Loki was his brother’s best man (with Heimdall keeping a very close watch) and Sif had passed Ullr to Gná to hold as she made up one of Jane’s bridesmaids with Darcy as the Maid of Honour. They had meshed some of Jane’s Midgardian traditions with the Asgardian ones and Sif had been talked in to this by Jane, with some help from Pepper. Even Natasha had given in and had allowed herself to end up in the wedding party. The vows were exchanged, Jane was crowned as Queen and those present rejoiced at the new age that was coming their way.

The newlyweds danced their first dance and the others trickled on to the dancefloor. Volstagg and his wife led the way, closely followed by Fandral and Darcy and Stark got Pepper on the dancefloor as well. Sif gave Loki a significant look as Gná was once again holding the baby.

“Today hasn’t been so bad,” he muttered in to her hair as they twirled on the dancefloor.

“No fights, no tears but there may be recriminations in the morning if the mortals get much more in to the mead,” Sif chuckled back, pitching her voice low so their conversation was just for them alone.

“Marry me.” Sif blinked and hesitated for just a moment in the dance as the words registered and as she did, her eyes went wide and she saw Loki smirking at her.

“About time I made an honest man out of you,” she chuckled as she relied on him to guide her as her mind and body caught back up with each other from his sudden proposal.

“Someone has to, might as well be you.”

“If I agree, we keep the secret for a while. Don’t want to steal Thor and Jane’s th-” she paused “Okay I’m not even going to finish that sentence.”

“Agreed. One last secret.” He smirked at her, he always did love his secrets and they continued to spin on the dancefloor with none the wiser around them of what was truly happening.

“Two, actually,” she smirked right back at him. “I won’t be able to fit in to a wedding dress for a least six more months. Ullr is going to be a big brother.”

The look on Loki’s face made everything worth it.


End file.
